this is just my 2nd year with bluebirds I had another nest of 7 chickadees early this year that all hatched and fledged on the timetable but i have a pair of bluebirds who laid 5 eggs last egg on April 15th 2012 and has been 21 days and none have hatched???the mother sits on the nest still and the male still visits-she though is scared off easy(anytime we open back door)but goes right back on-we did have a couple of cold snaps in between what is longest eggs have gone and still hatched(i might have a record here)

Congrats, and break out the candy cigars! Sometimes they remove unhatched eggs, sometimes not. I like to wait at least 3 extra days to see if it will hatch, but after that, a nestling would be so far behind the others, it would not likely be able to compete and would not survive anyway. You don't have to remove unhatched eggs, but usually I do. They are SO fragile, though, it must be done very carefully. You don't want to crush it and soil the nest, which would surely attract ants and other problems. You can use a spoon; I have a nice plastic one that came with MiracleGro that has 2 ends, one end is very deep and holds the egg nicely so it won't roll out. BlueBars

Very odd things happening with my houses this year. I had bluebirds in one house that laid 5 eggs. For the most part I try to stay away so they don't get spooked. In this case the next time I checked there was one fledgling that I saw but he didn't seem ready to fly away yet. But when I checked 2 days later there were no babies or eggs. The nest was empty. This box was protected with the mesh on the opening. I'm hoping time just flew by and the brood hatched and fledged in my absence! Will the parents start a new brood in the same nest or should I clean the box out for them to start over? I had another box that had activity, 5 eggs layed and a week later no eggs or babies. I fear they were killed since it was an old house from last year and it did not have the protective metal mesh at the opening. I have a nest nearby with the mesh protection. I kept checking and there was no activity or eggs. Then suddenly there was one egg!! I assumed the mom would lay more. I checked for 2 days, still only one egg. The third day the egg hatched with a tiny bald with a little fuzz baby bird. I kept watching from a distance and I did not see the male or female going into the house. I skipped looking inside the box today. I wanted to stay totally away. Tomorrow I will check again. I hope the little guy is okay.... Is it unusual for a female to lay only one egg? I'm thinking that perhaps the pair that were in the other box moved to this box when a predator got their other eggs..... Thus only one last egg to lay??? The box with the one egg is about 20 feet from the empty box. Perhaps this is part of that brood? Can the mom or dad move an egg or did she just lay it in a different box?? I have another box about 100 feet from that one protected with the mesh that some sparrows have taken over. They have built a nest and hang out in front of it on the mesh opening and on top of it but no eggs for well over a month. Perhaps they are the culprits that got the 5 bluebird eggs. Very strange that they built a nest and aren't using it. I know they will build several, one as a decoy or to give the female a choice, but I don't see that they've done that unless they are planning to take over the bluebird box. I will be keeping a watch on that....

Love the pictures and envy the beautiful snow, an opportunity to luxuriate in one's home that we're missing here in central Florida. Temps are up and down here also. As low as in the 20s just long enough to damage winter bloom and delicate foliages but mostly swinging from the high 30s-40s-50s up to 70s-80s. At 4 this morning it was in the high 60s thanks to cloud cover and I was sitting on the patio listening to the night life out in the marsh. Yesterday 40s and we were surrounded by heavy mist lit by what moonlight made it through. "Blizzard" cooking? The best chicken salad I've made so far pre-dresses baked white chicken with very flavorful pan juices, so I'm going to try that again. Grapes, greens, wine, patio. Nice, but cooking up a storm in a blizzard sounds wonderful. Enjoy!